Rich Hill expects to start for Dodgers on Wednesday against Giants

Rich Hill expects to start for Dodgers on Wednesday against Giants

Rich Hill said he expects to make his Dodgers debut now on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium – more than three weeks after he was acquired from the Oakland A's as part of a five-player trade.

Left-hander Rich Hill threw 78 pitches in a simulated game at the Dodgersâ training complex in Arizona on Thursday night and experienced no problems with the blister issues on his pitching hand that have sidelined him since July 17.

Hill said he expects to make his Dodgers debut now on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium â" more than three weeks after he was acquired from the Oakland Aâs as part of a five-player trade.

âEverything felt great,â said Hill who joined the Dodgers in Cincinnati on Friday. âThe ball came out really good, the velocity maintained, breaking ball was really sharp.â

The Dodgers have been waiting a long time to see Hill pitch for them â" not just since the trade deadline move. GM Farhan Zaidi said the Dodgers pursued Hill as a free agent this off season as well but were spurned by Hill who saw a more secure spot in the rotation in Oakland.

âAt the time, our belief was he could start because of how well he pitched last season for the Red Sox and with the flux of our rotation with the injuries and everything else we figured if he does end up in the âpen the curveball is such a great swing-and-miss weapon that heâd still probably be a real asset there,â Zaidi said. âSeeing him have the first half he had with the Aâs, I think he showed that he was able to carry over what he did last year with the Red Sox. From a pure performance standpoint, heâs been as good as any starter out there.â

That fact and the limited options among high-quality starting pitchers available at this yearâs deadline are why the Dodgers were able to send prospects to the Aâs in order to acquire Hill even though they did not know when he would be able to pitch for them. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged that the three-week wait was âprobably beyond what I would have expectedâ after acquiring Hill, he made it clear the Dodgers think Hill is worth the wait with the most important games of the Dodgersâ season still to be played.

âWhat attracted us to Rich at the deadline was his high-end potential,â Friedman said. âWe felt that he was a guy who could pitch very well against the best lineups in baseball. That part we were confident in. His exact return date was not really clear. We are being somewhat overly cautious with his finger, with this blister to make sure when he gets back heâll be able to stay back.â

The Dodgersâ ability to play well despite the instability in their rotation over the past six weeks has allowed them to wait with more patience while Hillâs finger healed. But Friedman said he is not surprised by the way the Dodgers have overcome their rotation challenges.

âI think we had a lot of confidence in our offense,â he said. âWe talked about it at the time that Kersh went down. One thing that gave us optimism was that our offense had not performed up to expectations at that point. We were confident that established watermarks that these guys had produced in the last few years would start to play out. Watching the way that they worked behind the scenes and grinded their way to get back to that is what gave all of us confidence in that.â

For his part, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts can only dream of a day when he can roll out a rotation fronted by injured left-handers Clayton Kershaw and Hill.

âIf Clayton is back, if Rich is back, Kenta (Maeda) is throwing the ball the way heâs throwing and you get the other guys in the rotation, obviously it sets up well for our club,â Roberts said. âRight now, those guys are working their way back. But the most encouraging thing for me is that weâre not waiting for guys to get back. Weâre taking care of the business at hand. Thatâs been our mindset since Day One. But certainly, when we get those guys back, weâre better for it.â

NOTES

Left-hander Adam Liberatore (elbow inflammation) and Fridayâs starter Bud Norris (back muscle strain) were activated from the DL before Fridayâs game. Right-handers Casey Fien and Ross Stripling were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City. â¦ Left-hander Julio Urias will start Sundayâs game in Cincinnati but Roberts would not commit to a starter for the series finale on Monday, saying right-hander Kenta Maeda would pitch either Monday or Tuesday. The Dodgers appear to be setting up a rotation of Maeda, Hill and Scott Kazmir for the three-game series against the San Francisco Giants next week in Los Angeles.

Join the conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful
conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments,
we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful,
threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent
or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law,
regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.